Asian Art Museum and Random Wandering around San Francisco

2013.03.09

Day One Hundred and Twenty Two. While we were up in SF last weekend, I spotted an ad for the Terracotta Warriors display at the Asian Art Museum and simply had to go! I've shot a few museums, and I'm used to the lighting being terrible (for photography), but I think the Asian Art Museum takes the cake here. I was pushing the highest ISO the D800 has most of the time and was grateful the 105mm macro lens has really good image stabilization. Even still though, I had to throw more than one shot away due to camera shake. I wish there was a pass to get into museums after hours so I could shoot with no one else around using my tripod instead of having to pump up my ISO and deal with the resulting grain. After thoroughly enjoying the museum, we wandered around the city for a bit where I got a few cool architecture shots. Then, after dinner, our wanderings inevitably lead to Rincon Park where I couldn't help but do another rendition of my favourite angle of the Oakland Bay Bridge, though, in retrospect, this time I didn't do as good of a job framing the pilings. This trip was my first time photographing the bridge after the start of The Bay Lights project, and I have to say, I think I like the look of the bridge (in a long exposure shot at night) better without the lights on the cables. That being said, it is really cool to just sit and watch the patterns flow across the bridge. Given the fog layer last weekend and its absence this weekend, we concluded the visit with a trip up Twin Peaks. The view from which was not what I was expecting. I had my wide angle ready to go, but significantly underestimated the distance to the city. In the end, the shots at 300mm came out much better than those at 28mm (of which I only kept one). In post, I did a lot more with the black and white conversions, experimenting heavily with colour filters and toners. Overall, I'm really happy with this set and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do :)